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An Israeli and a Palestinian Scathed by South Africa Apartheid Rhetoric
(Ha'aretz) Benjamin Pogrund and Bassem Eid - The two of us, an Israeli and a Palestinian, went to South Africa recently to speak about the Middle East. In several dozen meetings we repeatedly heard the "Israel is apartheid" accusation. No, we replied: Apartheid does not exist inside Israel. On the West Bank it is not apartheid. The apartheid comparison is false and confuses the real problems. It became clear to us that South Africans generally have limited knowledge about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But they hold many prejudices and these are fed and manipulated by organizations that are vehemently anti-Israel - to the extent of calling for destruction of the Jewish state. Our strangest meeting was with scores of Congolese who asked us why their conflict - ongoing since 1960 with a toll of more than 7 million people dead - receives less attention than does the Israeli-Palestinian struggle. South African-born Benjamin Pogrund was founder of Yakar's Center for Social Concern in Jerusalem. Bassem Eid is director of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group.